I kept my eyes closed as I rested against the rocky outcrop, still warm from the afternoon sun. The last of the sand sprinkled from my legs with the slightest motion. The restful roar of the surf in the deepening darkness soothed my thoughts. A moment's wind drew a coolness, and Melissa snuggled a little closer. She didn't say a word, so I didn't either. No need to spoil the magic of the moment. I looked out and noticed a shooting star in the distance, then turned a bit further toward her and closed my eyes, feeling the quiet sound of her breath beneath the sound of the waves. If only it could always be like this.

A long and wonderful moment later, she rubbed my nipple in a little circle. I looked into her eyes. "What is that?" she asked, and I followed her gaze to the shining streak in the sky.

For a stupid moment I wondered if I'd had a wish come true. But as a stronger wind swept the spray of the sea my way, I tried to think of a rational explanation. "Maybe something big reentered the atmosphere?" I said stupidly. I remembered seeing video of the Challenger crash in high school.

"It's been there for five minutes now." She looked serious, even a bit worried.

"Well, if it was a dinosaur killing meteor I'd have died happy." I chuckled.

I had to admit, it did seem brighter and whiter than it ought to. This was no mere falling star - the stars around it seemed to fade and quiver before its brilliance.

"It would be really interesting if it were something else. Like a cosmic string left over from the moment of creation, when the physical laws of the universe were worked out." A defect in reality. The thought seemed to resonate.

"Should we find out? I could go get my cell phone."

I caressed her silky little female sideburn and smiled. "Either it's the end of the world or it isn't. If it is, I'd like to stay here. If not, I'd like to stay here."

She turned and kissed me, unexpectedly, pinning me against the rock. Happily I wasn't going anywhere. We were on the verge of criminal indecency when the light flared. "Oh crap, who's there?", she stage-whispered.

The streak had grown to a vast triangle of bright daylight. The sooty edge of a building cut one corner short.

"Why, it's... it's..." The session monitor abandoned its struggle to hold the illusion. All the suppressed portions of hippocampal storage came back online. The display in my visual cortex scrolled the system's profuse apology. I cursed the bad luck that the failure would occur in a particular part of a particular cell exposed to direct sunlight; any other place and I'd never have noticed it in the darkness.

No one had informed the sex bot, which continued to murmur its astronomical confusion in a fetching palette of phonemes. It seemed impossible to believe, even in vacation mode, that such a simple thing, drawn crudely to a rough set of instinctive specifications, could have seemed like a woman to me.

I checked the display. I still had five hours until body and mind were turned over to the Corporation for the work interval. Glumly I dropped out the bottom of the recreation cell, keying a non-urgent code for maintenance that I hoped would split the difference between being tagged as assertive or inconscientious in Company records. Any complaint would be left to the next worker to think about. The electric conveyance carried me out of the recreation tower to the trolley stop.

I looked out at the city, which paved the ocean in towers from one dingy horizon to the other. There was no way that a worker could be allowed to procreate, of course; no practical chance to accommodate meaningful relationships. This glitched transition from rest to work mode, my memory-scripted attachment to Jennifer the sex bot, was the closest thing to love that any of us would ever feel.

The camera squats in the tripod, waiting. I sit on a flattish rock nearby, shutter release in hand, and look up. As always, my eyes are drawn to the Southern Cross. Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma Crucis. Four dots that make me feel every one of the twelve thousand miles between me and dad.

We used to go out in the late evening and look at stars. He had a little Celestron. I remember the first time he showed me Jupiter, with four moons just visible as little fuzzy blobs. I lay in bed and repeated their names like a mantra: Io; Europa; Ganymede; Calysto. The Lovers, trapped in Jupiter's embrace forever.

I moved here for love, for Claire. The culture shock was pretty minor, given that I didn't have to learn a new language, but the sky always surprises me. There's no north star to anchor the heavens as they spin. Maybe that's why I keep coming out here with the camera, in the cold evenings. To try and find an anchor point in this new world.

Dad's still in the little house in Leicestershire, pottering around. I speak to him most days, now that mum's gone. Lucy pops in as often as she can, but she's busy with the kids and with work. He's bought a lathe and he's making a chess set for me. His voice sounds thin on the phone. Not the deep voice I remember at my ear when I was looking through the telescope, telling me about the lunar seas, about craters and moon landing, about suns and stars and mysteries.

I look at the last picture and notice a streak in the photo, a rogue chunk of the celestial sphere falling to earth. I smile, knowing I'm done for the evening. Dad will like this one.

Stars are never stars. Stars may be made of plasmatic gasses, burning
like a halogen lamp set on 100 when the scale only goes to 10, but they
aren't. Stars are existences of dreams. They embody hope, and their
personalities change with the season. It isn't often a hope fails, but
when it does, it does so with glory.

It was with a flash and a bang that I met her. The world filled with light and then like a balloon popping in slow motion the air grew thick and heavy with tension and then BANG. It was over, the sound echoing down the coast. The air rumbled as the beach grew very hot, and then resumed its tepid temperature as before.

For a second I forgot myself, forgetting that there was such a thing as a rational mind and almost ran away. But as it grew back into myself it came by age and the first feeling that resumed after "flight" was curiosity. With ginger steps I walked over to what I'd seen. What I thought was a comet that fell out of the sky.

Do you remember that old joke? It goes like, "I always wondered why the frisbee kept getting bigger, and then it hit me". That was what it was like watching this beam of luminescence fall to me.

Over the scraggy rocks I climbed to see it. But it wasn't an "it" at all... It was a "her".

She was standing with a white dress, shining like a... well a star. Everything about her was a pale glowing. Radiant blond hair, in the most literal sense, and the most gorgeous deep blue eyes I'd ever seen. She was a queen. Or a Princess, I really didn't know which but I knew she was royalty.

She, at first, just lay there desolate, almost angry. A few seconds later she arose with what appeared to be a wrathful expression. She looked to the sky and cursed it in whatever language it was she spoke. I stayed crouched behind the sharp stone, eyes still transfixed on her.

A few moments later she noticed me, my eyes reflecting the light coming from her. It seemed to diminish as the time wore on, but only very slowly. Upon meeting my gaze she fled in the other direction. Running gracefully and without inhibition down the coast.

The truck ground to a halt at the foot of the mountain. Jakob set the parking brake, reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a set of wooden chocks.

From the backseat he heard a small yawn, "are we there yet daddy?" A sleepy voice asked.

"We are, just let me get the gear," he responded.

Jakob pushed the door open, and stepped out into the warm night. He took a deep breathe, and glanced up at the stars. God, they were beautiful tonight. He bent down, and shoved the chocks under the front wheels of his old truck. With a grunt, he stood up, then walked around to the back, and grabbed a beat up duffel bag.

He tapped on the window, the door swung open, and a little girl stepped out, into the night.

"Honey, are you going to be okay to walk, or do you want me to carry you?" Jakob asked.

"It's okay, I'm," Maddie let out a small yawn, "not tired at all."

He smiled, then shouldered the bag, and offered her his hand.

The trek up the mountain was easier than he had expected, even though the park service had disbanded, someone had been keeping the paths clear. After about a half-hour of walking, Maddie stopped and pointed off into the bushes.

"Daddy, what's that?" She asked, suddenly wide awake.

Squinting through the gloom, Jakob was able to make out a small grey mass. "Probably a rabbit, sweetie."

"Really?" Her eyes lit up, "there are rabbits out here?"

"Yep. We're far enough away from the city, that rabbits and other critters are still around."

For the rest of the trek, Maddie kept her eyes focused on the bush, hoping to see another rabbit, or maybe even a squirrel.

Once they reached the peak, the trees parted and they were able to get a good look at the sky. Maddie stopped, and stared up at it, mouth agape. While Jakob set up the telescope, she stood still, head back, just trying to take it all in.

"How many are there?" She asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know," Jakob replied, "fewer than there used to be."

"They're so pretty, why don't they look like this at home?"

"The lights and the smoke make it hard to see, but out here there's nothing to ruin the view."

"Well, I like it."

Once the telescope was set up, Jakob took out his Pad, and inputted the coordinates into the tracking computer. The tiny motor whirred as it aimed the telescope at the precise coordinates.

After looking at his watch, Jakob called Maddie over.

"Are we going to see more stars?" Maddie asked, excitedly.

"Better," he replied, "you're gonna see mommy."

"Really?!" She exclaimed.

"Just look through the eye piece down there, and be careful. If you bump it, we might need to wait a while for her to make another orbit."

"Oh I will!" She placed her eye down to the piece, "I don't see anything," she immediately announced.

Jakob chuckled, "just keep looking, she'll be here in a few seconds."

A minute or two later, Maddie looked up from the telescope, with a puzzled look on her face. "All I saw was a little metal tube, moving super fast."

"That's where mommy works, she's getting it ready for us."

"You said that, forever ago. When do we get to see her?"

"Soon. Her work is almost done, and once it is, we'll go up there to meet her."

Just then a meteor streaked across the sky.

"Make a wish," he said.

"I wish that wherever we go, I'll be able to see the stars."

Jakob smiled, then began putting away the telescope, and preparing for the long walk back to the truck.